End of Week 2

Hard to believe that school has been in for almost 2 weeks.  This semester thus far has been a whirlwind, with classes and other commitments.

I love my classes so far this semester... although it will prove to be a writing and oral presentation heavy semester.

Physics is turning out to be easier than I anticipated - although I am super confused on dimensional analysis (even in general chemistry was this a huge struggle) but I understand how to do most of the math.  The only downfall to this course is having to remember topics from my Algebra 2 class, which was 6 years ago.  The professor is a riot (although some people would say other wise). Dr. S started off the semester having us as a class guess what PhD stood for - - - his answer wasn't one I was expecting.  He told us, "PhD stands for permanent head damage."  He reminds me of the guys on the Big Bang Theory with his dry, nerdy humor, which makes the class enjoyable.  I also got the opportunity to learn a bit more about his (k-12) education background (He is from Malaysia) - which is a lot different than our education system here in the states.

Neuroscience - is going to be interesting class with topics but also intense.  It is a upper level major course (psych) and will reinforce written and verbal competencies for psychology majors (along with cognitive or social psychology). I am able to take this class because my minor adviser knew it would be interesting to me - so I took experimental psychology a year and a half ago as the pre-requisite to taking the class.  There will be 10 lab reports (4 whole ones and the others will have specific sections (introduction, methods, results, discussion) for us to complete), oral presentations (5 per person with alternating individuals), and a research paper and presentation. - And with all of this said, if I wanted to I could go post-bac and take 2 more psychology course (personality and social psychology) and have a second degree.

Capstone - well - it also consists of oral presentations and 2 thesis papers.  The first "mini" - thesis paper will be about coral bleaching and the second, full thesis paper will be on a topic of our choice. I am going to have the opportunity to write about a topic that was interesting to me from my internship at CHA this summer - and have it count towards my Independent Research semester hours.  - I definitely was excited about that, as well as Dr. H.

My other two courses are lighter and interesting.  I was worried about Hebrew Bible - especially since I never took a history/religion course on the college level, but Dr. Sa makes it interesting with the knowledge he has and incorporated into his own textbook. I am also glad I get to take Drawing 1 (although I never took an art class after 8th grade prior to intro to art last year) to hone in what I am able to do drawing wise.

I thought it was interesting how Prof, A.P. had us start off the semester with blind contour drawings. This was a hard task because you don't know what you are drawing, yet you can train yourself to look away while drawing and gain experience with detail (or something like that). The activity itself taught me to let go when it comes to drawing - because many times I shied away from attempting any art because of the sketch not being "perfect". The same goes for writing, music, etc. My mentor, K.S.E bought me a book, "Big Magic" over the summer that goes into Elizabeth Gilbert's journey to becoming "more" creative - and in the early part of the book - she talks about just letting go and writing.

Lastly - SI (upper level Spanish - intermediate).  It has been a different experience so far.  I went to training last week - learned how to lead group activities that basically reinforce what is being taught in the course.  So for this I get to sit in during class; I plan and prepare activities, and lead the sessions - we also have meetings a few times a month.  Thursday night was the first session and I only had one person show up.  It was awkward but I was able to help him better understand conjugation and to review previous material. I like how with tutoring and SI, I can help the individual tap into different learning styles.  Last fall, I tutored a basketball player - and I would have her write on the board - for oral presentation preparation. And with doing that - along with practicing speaking - she did much better with her presentations.  Same with the guy I helped last night - he understood conjugation patterns much better after writing them on the board.